GRE

This How I Prepared for GRE Exam (3 Steps)

3 Step GRE Exam Study Plan – Written by Sameer

  1. Raw Skills: Know Where do you stand?
  2. GRE Exam Preparation
  3. GRE Sample: Practice, Practice and More Practice

Raw Skills – Know where do you stand?

It is important to clear the misconception from within. You might have been exposed to English, that’s good, but it may not be enough to crack the GRE test.

You must know what your current levels of skills (verbal, quantitative and analytical writing).

You need to find where you stand and prepare your GRE exam study plan accordingly. Hence, take the necessary practice tests.

In fact, there are diagnostic mock GRE tests on websites like Kaplan. Get registered for free and attempt diagnostic test and diagnose your performance.

Actual – GRE Exam Preparation

Get your resources from 2-3 different good resources. Joining a coaching center is okay, but not compulsory. There are good resources online.

Some of them are given below at the end of this write up. With new GRE exam changes in 2011, you have to change your preparation steps.

GRE Practice Exams and Practice

Taking GRE exam practice tests is the most important step in preparing. Practice and diagnosis go hand in hand [How to Improve GRE Exam Score].

Just writing a series of mock exams won’t help that much unless you really sit down after each exam and diagnose how did you get a question wrong.

You must know your own pitfalls and avoid them in the exams. There could be some sections that you do well. You need not worry much about them.

Also, there could be questions you think you did well but you got them wrong. This is the point of contemplation. How you fell into the trap for a question? Answer yourself.

Day before the Exam

Please note this, prior to exam day:

  1. Prepare well in advance to select your graduate schools. Remember the correct details of university, school, department and course names.
  2. When you are finished with your exam, the GRE test software prompts you to select the university, name, school names (in some cases), department name and course name the test center.

Useful GRE Exam Preparation sites

  • How to Memorize Barron’s GRE Words
  • number2.com. Create an account and do practice (only meanings Q’s are unlimited and other Q’s are limited- good to build your vocabulary and test your vocabulary).
  • gre-verbal.blogspot.com: Has a good collection of GRE words aggregated monthly…they say these are Q’s from exam for that month. I have not verified the claim. They are pretty useful.
  • visualthesaurus.com: It’s the website. It’s gives a good visual experience relating a jargon of words differentiating its shades. You got to register here to use it fully, although a trail is available for limited use.
  • dictionary.reference.com: This was my dark horse. I used this for looking up every new word along with synonyms and antonyms. It also gives the words’ usage and history.
  • syvum.com/gre: Instant test and results on set of 10 Q’s
  • 800score.com/gre-index.html: I don’t remember if this was a paid site…just explore this as well.
  • freshersworld.com: It has GRE preparations material
  • koolkareers.com/gre: It also has GRE preparation materials

If you have any comments and questions, leave a comment to this article. Sameer is going to write a series of articles about his experience.

If you like the article, Re-tweet this article by clicking on the green re-tweet button on the right side.

Guest Article By – Sameer, I’m doing my master’s program at Cleveland State Univ. I have completed a bachelor’s in computer science from Osmania and worked for 3 years with Infosys. Back then, when I was applying at U.S. schools I found the blog very informative and I would like to share my experience to other Happy Schools Blog readers.

Related: Best GRE Tets Prep Book for High Score

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7 Comments

  1. im a third year student..i need to know the formalities for writing gre..i know nothing about GRE..plz tell me in detail when i have to write n how to apply for this xam..

  2. sameer can u plz put up the link for some sources as u've mentioned like kaplan…

    well i m athird year student of pharma….when shall i'd appear for the GRE test….?????

    expecting ur ans soon…thank u….

  3. i m preparing for TOEFL. plz suggest me to the speaking section preparation.i m a hindi medium student and also suggest the cracking tips for TOEFL.i take the dade in mid jan 2010.

    1. Dear abc,

      You have to know about something before you speak. There is a learning process to be followed for TOEFL. For you to speak fluently about a topic in the exam, you must have knowledge about the topic. So take a TOEFL preparation material >go through sample Speaking questions and practice them.

      Do the same for other sections on toefl.

  4. hi Mr.sameer

    nice way of paying back to this blog and also to many aspiring students

    yes it is real world of words to write gre and score above 1500

    plus

    it needs determination, commitment and zeal to fly high

    set a path of ones own, many have done it

    many will come to cross the records to rewrite

    thanks friends for your compassion in sharing what you have experienced and it is the well traveled path

    that will lead many to glory

    thanks sameer and HSB

    with gratitude

    easwaran

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